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Comment by hahajk | Hacker News Reader

Negotiate with whom? I don’t think there’s anyone at the hospital you’ll have access to that can guarantee you a lower price (or can probably even tell you what the price will be). After you’ve had the treatment and finally given the bill you don’t have any negotiating power; you can only beg at that point.

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You have a much better negotiating position at that point. They can't reposess your treatment!

That's actually backwards. You are in a better negotiating position, when you've had the treatment and been given the bill. You can simply say, I can't afford that bill and I can't pay it. Don't beg or ask. Tell them. The people trying to collect money from you are paid a commission based upon how much they collect.

You might have to just refuse to pay until someone calls you about it. Then you could offer to pay a portion. It may very well be a collections agency calling, and late payment could reflect poorly on your credit rating.

This actually can work, but you have to remember to check up art the right time before they send to collections. Don't forget about it or a collector will be calling you.

That's actually my point. Eventually someone will call you and want to negotiate to get partial payment.

Yes, and you can negotiate with the collector, but at that point your credit report is damaged so probably not worth it.

The funny thing though, it is so common for medical bills to get to collections that it doesn't effect your credit rating like other bills would.

I heard that too. I have 2 bill in collections from 6 years ago, still negatively impacting my credit score. The 7 year mark is coming up in two months so I will see how it affects my credit.

Can you negotiate with the collector to get the bad credit entry deleted and pay and a discounted percentage of the bill ?

I read somewhere that’s how to fix your credit rating, wonder if it’s also good for s discount ;)

Yeah, that's called "pay for delete."

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